The Belief of Disbelief: An Introduction to Atheism

When I was asked to write about Atheism by the creator of this site, the first thing I did was to read their articles on Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. I then did a quick online search into Atheism and almost decided to throw in the towel. What I thought was a simple thing just took on the appearance of a large vat of spaghetti being played with by a cat on PCP’s. Hey ho.

A Bit Of Background

I tend to drift between Atheism and Agnosticism. This is because I have always tried to keep an open and rational mind on things and, if I am allowed to demonstrate at some point, you can make a far more logical argument for gods, than against.

While being a bit of a wargaming/roleplaying geek, I spent my early years fully embracing science, and now I am a budding historian/teacher. My career has been retail driven for 20 years. As such logic, proof, evidence, fact, statistics, and the like are at the core of who I am, and there is just no evidence of gods for me. If there was, we wouldn’t need belief. Yet there are certain unanswered questions, plus the logical argument, that might on the right day swerve me more towards Agnosticism.

Anyway, onto Atheism…

Atheism: What Is It?

It is a belief system. In a broad sense its a rejection of belief of deities, or that specifically there are no deities.

In Western cultures it is more specifically related to the rejection of the monotheistic Abrahamic god, and indeed was used as an insult in mediaeval times.

Atheism has a very broad range of ideologies and they can be of very high philosophical base. It is not necessarily a rejection of religion, as Hinduism holds Atheism as a valid but difficult to follow path of spirituality, and Buddhism and Jainism both do not advocate belief in gods.

Some Atheist authors hold the definition of Theist/Agnostic/Atheist as being in the reaction to the statement “God exists”. Because we have been unable to prove or disprove the existence of gods, Atheism is a belief – a belief that there are no gods, a disbelief of gods. This might go some way to explain why the arguments between Theological and Atheist philosophers often take similar formats.

When Did It Start?

Ok, I will go out on a limb: Atheism is older than Theism.

If you are an Atheist this is a logical argument, and unless you hold to the story of Genesis as being true and exact as written, I think some Theists would agree too; maybe this is something we can pick up at another point; however being a good historian I will stick to the written facts.

Atheism existed in Vedic religion, since about 6th century BC. Diagonas in 5th century BC is held to be the first recorded Atheist. Also Critias (5th century BC) of Athens viewed religion as a deliberate imposture devised by some cunning man for political ends (although I note that this does not mean he rejected gods – just the formal structure around them). Also of note was Euhemerus who is responsible for Euhemerism, the concept that mythology is a reflection of actual historical happenings or people and that gods are just cults that have sprung up around these figures.

Interestingly early Christians were called Atheists by Pagans. Obviously recorded Atheism would have been almost non-existent in a Christian dominated Western Europe during the Early to Middle Ages.

Yet there was a docta ignoratia, defined by among others Nicholas of Cusa. This held that god was beyond human categorisation and could not be understood by humans. This was taken further by Ockham, and his work was influential in later thinkers like Wycliffe and Martin Luther, creating a split between faith and reason that would be exploited by the Enlightenment philosophes at a later age.

The Renaissance did much to encourage skeptical enquiry and da Vinci, Machiavelli, des Pieres amongst others criticised the Church during this time. This is very similar to Critias; the possible criticisms of the structures around gods rather than an outright rejection of gods.

While the Renaissance saw a resurgence of Christianity, as well as the rise of Islam in the Middle East with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it also laid the grounds for the rise in Atheism later given a kick start by Spinoza and the Philosophes of the Enlightenment. The rejection of God’s involvement and authority in the State not only lead to the French Revolution, but laid the foundation of the rise of the modern secular Western liberal democracy, as well as some former Communist states.

So Where Do You Sign Up?

Um, you don’t.

There are no places of official non-worship, no official books with rules, guides or parables.

All you have to decide is whether you believe in god, gods or not. If it is no, then you are an Atheist.

You can be a Christian or Jewish Atheist, where you agree with the teachings of the books and teachers in those books but just not the concept of a god. Or you can be a member of any of the huge variety of philosophical strands of Atheism; or you can go your own way.

Atheism isn’t an organised institution with common goals and aims; it has no officially recognised day of celebration; it has no formal ceremonies or induction. This is, in part, why this article is not as comprehensive as the others; the sheer depth, variety, heavy philosophy, and personal connection with Atheism cannot be summarised in a brief introduction. As such, for me, Atheism is at its core an extremely personal point of view or set of beliefs.

In a world which has a history of being dominated and controlled by religion, Atheism is also a very brave new choice despite its history.